"My life ends here!" Rasa watched, helpless, as that incandescent streak tore through his last defenses and shot toward him.
In those seemingly frozen moments, his life flashed before his eyes.
His wife. His brother-in-law. His children. His entire existence, a failure both as a Kage and a father.
'What a... utterly worthless life!'
He closed his eyes, ready to embrace his end.
The next instant, a vast, malevolent Chakra erupted. Amidst thunderous roars, a colossal silhouette heaved itself upward, unleashing a deafening bellow.
"Bahahaha!!! This great-"
Boom!
The laughter was cut short.
In the dissipating smoke stood a massive, curse-marked tanuki of sand and stone, staring dumbfounded ahead.
Its extended tail had been severed clean off, the stump fused into smooth, glossy glass by terrifying heat, leaving its rear end bald and absurdly round.
More critically, taking the full brunt of that Armament Haki-infused strike gave this Chakra Construct its first taste of truly excruciating pain.
The euphoria of its escape, lasting less than three seconds, was brutally shattered, sending the beast into a primal rage.
"Who?! Who dares?!!" it screeched, its voice piercing. The resulting shockwave whipped up a hurricane-force gale, scouring the forest.
"The One-Tail... Gaara has truly lost control!" Rasa coughed up dark, coagulated blood, leaning heavily against a tree, one arm hanging useless.
Surviving the initial strike brought him no relief.
What could be worse than a rampaging Tailed Beast loose near an enemy village, with no strength left to contain it?
Something was worse. Something far worse. Another monster, from that very village, was closing in fast.
"Cough!"
More dark blood splattered, sizzling and vanishing on the hot ground. Enduring combat under extreme temperatures, his failed assassination, and the relentless pursuit had pushed him to his absolute limit.
That he still lived was a miracle of Chakra endurance and Ninja physiology.
"Sakura!" Naruto, who had been chasing Gaara, spotted the arriving girl and brightened, starting forward before recoiling from the blistering wave of heat.
"What... what kind of technique is this?" Sasuke's throat was desert-dry, his voice a ragged whisper.
"You two, help secure the village! Leave the One-Tail and Rasa to me!" Sakura's command cut through the air as she descended like a falling star, wreathed in terrifying flame and radiance.
Seeing the burning girl and the monstrous Shukaku, Rasa made a split-second decision and sprinted toward the Tailed Beast.
"Shukaku! A monster approaches! We must cooperate!" The giant tanuki glanced down at the source of the tiny voice, its eyes locking onto a form it viscerally loathed.
"You! The vermin who sealed me! This great Shukaku does not cooperate! Perish!!!" Shukaku's immense belly ballooned. Chakra, refined and shaped like a Ninja's elemental technique, surged within.
It raised a colossal paw and slammed it down onto its own stomach, violently expelling a gargantuan sphere of compressed wind and chakra from its maw.
"Wind Release: Air Bullet!"
"Spear of Elbaf: Ikoku Sovereignty!"
Sakura's roar answered the Tailed Beast's attack.
Her storm sword swept out, unleashing a slash carrying immense, crushing pressure.
Unprecedented heat fused with the legendary spear technique of the Giants. A savage, expanding tide of light erupted, transforming into a world-swallowing shockwave that screamed forward.
Boom!
The Air Bullet was utterly shredded. The remaining force of the Ikoku Sovereignty surged unimpeded toward the giant beast.
Shukaku felt an inferno blast its face. A deafening, earth-shaking detonation roared in its ears.
Its right arm, thrown up in a desperate block, was instantly transformed into glittering, fractured glass before disintegrating completely.
Stunned, Shukaku's eyes bulged.
Then, through the countless reflecting shards, it saw Sakura's golden, pitiless eyes lift, the storm sword already rising for another strike.
In that moment, a primordial memory surfaced in Shukaku's mind.
'Is... is that thing in the sky getting brighter?'
"Cooperation! I'll cooperate!!!" Shukaku shrieked, all pride forgotten, at the tiny figure of Rasa behind it.
Sand obligingly swirled, forming a platform that hoisted the gold-dust-deprived Rasa up to its side.
"I'll use Earth Release! Amplify it with your Wind!" Rasa wasted no breath, clasping his hands to gather the dregs of his Chakra.
Magnet Release, Water, Earth, Wind... He had exhausted nearly his entire arsenal in this fight.
But every technique seemed pathetic against heat capable of vaporizing steel.
Now, with Shukaku's power, a final, desperate plan formed.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow River!" Rasa's Chakra hit the ground, transmuting solid earth into a vast, shifting sea of fine sand.
Behind him, Shukaku's belly distended once more, and it hammered its paw against it.
"Wind Release: Air Bullet!"
[Combined Ninjutsu: Wind Release: Sand Blast]
Their powers merged, unleashing a cataclysmic Wind Release Technique.
The Chakra-laced sand grains, caught in the titanic gale force of Shukaku's blast, became a hyper-kinetic hailstorm of projectiles.
Even if the girl's heat melted the sand into glass, it would only create more lethal, molten shrapnel.
Pure, unadulterated physical force… the one conceivable weakness of her infernal heat-based style!
'Now, endure this and be erased!'
Rasa's gaze was icy and resolute, locked onto Sakura's form within the maelstrom.
However...
"A pathetic trick." Watching the sand-charged Air Bullet hurtle toward her, Sakura's lips curled in contempt.
Her hands flashed through seals.
Chakra streamed upward, etching a colossal, intricate pattern against the sky.
A complex summoning matrix blossomed, its center tearing open a shimmering portal. On the other side lay the scarred landscape of the Naka River valley.
[Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder]
A technique pioneered by the Fourth Hokage, designed explicitly to divert the apocalyptic attacks of Tailed Beasts.
"…" Rasa's jaw went slack. No sound emerged. His face contorted in a spasm of utter despair.
'How could anyone counter this? Heat that nullified Ninjutsu, colossal area attacks, and now Space-Time Ninjutsu to redirect a Tailed Beast's blast...'
The mere fraction of her power she had deigned to show was enough to render a Kage utterly obsolete.
"It ends now." The cold, final pronouncement came from behind Rasa.
A fist, wreathed in clinging embers, shot forward. The arm, sheathed in viscous, burning energy, punched straight through his chest.
Cough!
With his heart instantly incinerated, Rasa had no breath for final words. He merely choked on his own blood before his body gave way, collapsing to the earth.
A smoldering, tunnel-like hole was punched straight through Shukaku's sandy form. Though agony wracked its being, the great tanuki dared not even whimper.
It had only one, crystal-clear thought.
'You got him! The deal was you get him and you don't get me! We had a deal!'